charred lemon & earl grey tart

throw a couple of lemons on the barbie.

pastry

adapted from matt adlard

113g butter, softened

80g icing sugar

3 egg yolks

225g flour

pinch of salt

lemon curd

adapted from martha collison twist

juice from 4 lemons

100g butter, softened

150g sugar

2 egg

2 egg yolk

150g plain greek yoghurt

cream

100g whipping cream

1 tsp earl grey tea leaves

pastry

combine the butter, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat until smooth, add in the eggs yolks, mixing until fully combined, then beat in the flour so a soft dough forms. shape the dough into a disc, wrap it in cling film, then refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

preheat the oven to 350F.

on a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry into a large circle (slightly bigger than your tart tin) carefully place the pastry in the tart tin, pressing it into the edges and sides.

put a piece of parchment paper into the tart and fill it with baking bean, rice or something like that. chill the tart for 30 minutes in the fridge, bake for 15-20 minutes, remove the baking beans and reduce the oven temp to 330F, bake for another 5-10 minutes until the sides are golden and the bottom is dried out. let cool.

curd

roll the lemons on a hard surface pressing down with the palm of your hand, this helps you get more juice out of the lemons and makes them a little bit easier to squeeze, slice the lemons in half.

using a griddle pan on high heat or bbq, grill the lemon halves so they start to caramelize but don’t take them too far (we don’t want burnt lemons). squeeze all the juice out.

combine the lemon juice, butter, sugar, eggs, and yolks in a small saucepan on medium heat, continually whisking until the curd starts to thicken. this can take a while, at least 10 minutes, so just keep with it! making sure the curd doesn’t boil that can make it curdle or burn the bottom of the pan. just keep whisking.

to test to see if it’s done get some curd on the back of a spoon then run your finger through it, if it holds it’s shape then the curd is done, if it drips at all then it needs to be cooked longer.

transfer the lemon curd into a clean bowl and cover with cling film directly touching the surface of the curd, chill overnight or for 2-4 hours.

once cold, stir in the greek yoghurt then pour it into the cooled tart shell, store in the fridge.

cream

whip the cream to medium peaks then fold in the tea leaves, dollop the cream on top of the tart however you like:)

*if you wanna go hard, put 1-2tsp of earl grey tea leaves in the pastry!